tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160Tue, 07 Oct 2014 04:27:40 +0000StartupsMentorsTechStarsInvestorsPrioritizationTeamBoardBrad FeldCompetitionDharmesh ShahKinveyMarketingMentor UpdatesPoachingRecruitingSean LindsaySkillsMentor Backed- Featuring Mentors, Entrepreneurs and Ideas that power Mentor Backed Entrepreneurshiphttp://www.mentorbacked.com/noreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)Blogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-5083011899892167296Sat, 24 May 2014 16:20:00 +00002014-06-01T11:41:25.849-04:00BoardInvestorsStartupsTeamI hate you Fred Destin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_KEskJV744/U4C6lvZ8H3I/AAAAAAAACo8/NU37GUc-KQM/s1600/FredDestin_ThumbsUp.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_KEskJV744/U4C6lvZ8H3I/AAAAAAAACo8/NU37GUc-KQM/s1600/FredDestin_ThumbsUp.JPG" height="320" width="180" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />“We’re in.” &nbsp;Those were Fred’s first words to me after he finished his debrief with the <a href="http://www.atlasventure.com/" target="_blank">Atlas Venture</a> partnership when I presented <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" target="_blank">Kinvey</a> to them for our&nbsp;<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/04/kinvey-closes-2m-seed-round-for-its-backend-as-a-service-product/" target="_blank">Series-Seed round of financing</a>. &nbsp;It kicked off an entrepreneurial roller coaster that has been the time of my life. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago, Fred called me up on a late friday afternoon -- unusual for him to do so. &nbsp;After exchanging brief pleasantries, he said, “Look, I’m leaving Atlas and we are moving back to London.” &nbsp;He started to <a href="http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/04/09/the-story-behind-fred-destins-departure-atlass-future/" target="_blank">explain that sentence</a> in greater detail, but I stopped listening.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hate Fred Destin.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because, he has spoiled me.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve been in a startup for 90% of my professional life. &nbsp;I’ve heard and experienced numerous horror stories about VCs and Board members. &nbsp;I’ve been told that they are prone to wanting to fire you; they play mind games with you in Board meetings; you can never know what they are thinking; they always try to show you that they are the smartest people in the room; they don’t listen to what the CEO wants to do and instead make strategy decisions for the company as if they were operating the company and living and breathing the realities of the market; they rarely come through on commitments they make; they talk down to the CEO and the management team and treat them like kids; if you don’t take their advice, they’ll hold it against you. &nbsp;And on and on…</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fred Destin does none of those things.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fred has made me realize that an entrepreneur’s relationship with an investor and Board member can be simple, stress-free, constructive and productive if you follow these 5 things:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6geS2PBujZ0/U4C6lYr7iMI/AAAAAAAACos/1vTysXcG3j8/s1600/FredDestin_Tell_a_Story.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6geS2PBujZ0/U4C6lYr7iMI/AAAAAAAACos/1vTysXcG3j8/s1600/FredDestin_Tell_a_Story.png" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b><b>1. Get everyone to grok the details and the big picture:</b> &nbsp;Startups are hard. &nbsp;In the early stages, there is often&nbsp;more bad news than good. Don’t be shy about making your problems your Board member’s problem. &nbsp;If you’ve picked the right investors, they’ll love you for it. Everyone should know and understand the details, and the details help in problem solving.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the same time, it’s too easy for an entrepreneur to stop looking at the big picture. &nbsp;Why did you decide to initiate your startup’s journey? What does success look like? What’s happening in your ecosystem, etc.? &nbsp;Have those conversations as your evolve your company. &nbsp;It’ll keep your Board aligned around <a href="http://avalon-ventures.com/early-stage-investing/3-questions-every-vc-must-ask-in-the-investment-decision-process" target="_blank">why everyone still believes</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TurtrWqoNGg/U4C6lYW5FTI/AAAAAAAACoo/e7uL0aRhMyE/s1600/FredDestin_Get_to_The_Point.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TurtrWqoNGg/U4C6lYW5FTI/AAAAAAAACoo/e7uL0aRhMyE/s1600/FredDestin_Get_to_The_Point.jpg" height="200" width="143" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b><b>2. &nbsp;Be direct:</b> &nbsp;Time is money in the VC business, and for that matter, in the startup business too. &nbsp;If you’ve got something on your mind, say it. &nbsp;Beating around the bush never helps anyone. &nbsp;In the long term, it builds trust, and you know where someone stands – this is key for a Board to function well.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />I don't think I've have ever had a phone call with Fred that has been longer than 15 minutes or a meeting that has gone longer than we planned, without achieving the primary goals of the discussion. &nbsp;His clarity in thinking, tendency to say what's on his mind and an "<a href="https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/aucune%20connerie" target="_blank">aucune connerie</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">" attitude has gone a long way in helping us be on the same page, EVERY time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o4CFSlYgAQ8/U4C6mYw68QI/AAAAAAAACpE/qPogFU0u_hQ/s1600/Fred_Destin_Kinvey_Team_Empathy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o4CFSlYgAQ8/U4C6mYw68QI/AAAAAAAACpE/qPogFU0u_hQ/s1600/Fred_Destin_Kinvey_Team_Empathy.png" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b><b>3. &nbsp;Align the Board and the team:</b>&nbsp; Your product, market, competition, strategy, etc., are all important considerations. But look, getting your team composition right and getting that team to function as a cohesive and motivated unit is paramount. &nbsp;If you don't get the team right, you're bound to fail. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Most startup CEOs tend to build a wall between their Board and the rest of the team. &nbsp;I think that's wrong. &nbsp;Try to get your Board members to have regular (fireside) chats with the entire company, perhaps after every Board meeting. &nbsp;Your team will appreciate the&nbsp;opportunity&nbsp;to hear about the state of your business directly from the proverbial horse. &nbsp;At the same time, the Board trusts everything the CEO says because they have the opportunity to get a sense of where the entire team is during these meetings.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Oh, and when you put Fred in front of your team, he can motivate them to reach for the sky.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YNdi-IkeDXs/U4C6lUrqBNI/AAAAAAAACpU/oeIQU7w3giI/s1600/FredDestin_Push_The_Envelope.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YNdi-IkeDXs/U4C6lUrqBNI/AAAAAAAACpU/oeIQU7w3giI/s1600/FredDestin_Push_The_Envelope.JPG" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b><b>4. &nbsp;Don’t be shy about being daring:</b> &nbsp;If you’re not pushing the envelope, you’re not doing enough. &nbsp;If you’re not making a few people uncomfortable, you’re not trying new things. &nbsp;If you’re not being quirky and unique, you’re not building your brand. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Fred has always pushed Kinvey to be different. &nbsp;He loved that <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/blog/33/Welcome-to-the-World-of-Backend-as-a-Service" target="_blank">we coined the phrase</a> "<a href="http://www.kinvey.com/blog/65/mobile-cloud-backend-as-a-service-ecosystem-map-8211-all-roads-lead-to-baas" target="_blank">Backend as a Service</a>" to describe what we do. &nbsp;He loves to have fun with it (as you can see from the picture to your right). &nbsp;But being different is just an aspiration. &nbsp;You can't make it a reality unless you find a way to tell your story. &nbsp;A friend of mind once told me, "Facts tell and Stories Sell." &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Ask anyone who knows Fred and they'll tell you that he is as unique a character as they come. &nbsp;But what makes it work is that he's an amazing story teller and he's always pushed Kinvey to tell its story well.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UB1h0wFRtLU/U4C6l6CURgI/AAAAAAAACpQ/BbkClH0-Zz8/s1600/Fred_Destin_Have_Fun.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UB1h0wFRtLU/U4C6l6CURgI/AAAAAAAACpQ/BbkClH0-Zz8/s1600/Fred_Destin_Have_Fun.JPG" height="320" width="180" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b><b>5. &nbsp; Have fun:</b> &nbsp;Being a founder/CEO is a lonely job. &nbsp;The passion with which you started your company can evaporate in months once the stress of building a product, growing a team, ensuring everyone is happy, ensuring there is money in the bank, scaling revenue, serving your customers, etc., overwhelms you. There are too many things that won't go according to plan, and t</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">here are too many things that need to get done. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Fred has taught me that you and your Board HAVE to celebrate and appreciate the good things that happen. &nbsp;And, you have to get your team to recognize them too. &nbsp;It's too easy to forget your accomplishments. &nbsp;Every so often, take a break and smile at what you just did. &nbsp;You've love it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Earlier this week, Fred announced that he is <a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2014/05/21/venture-capitalist-fred-destin-joins-accel-london/" target="_blank">joining Accel London as a Partner</a> to focus on early stage investments in Europe. &nbsp;That’s fantastic news for entrepreneurs looking for an investor who really gets the ups and downs of building a business.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For me, I hope to find the opportunity to work with Fred again.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RN4ZzcPfUTI/U4DCgdHLbqI/AAAAAAAACpo/owtmXV_KdVE/s1600/Fred_Destin_Sravish_Working_Again.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RN4ZzcPfUTI/U4DCgdHLbqI/AAAAAAAACpo/owtmXV_KdVE/s1600/Fred_Destin_Sravish_Working_Again.png" height="107" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Until then, well… I hate you Fred Destin. &nbsp;:)</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div></div><div><br /></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2014/05/i-hate-you-fred-destin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-4487675797159466638Thu, 02 May 2013 21:38:00 +00002013-05-03T06:16:31.288-04:00Some thoughts on the NEVYs and the Boston Startup Community<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x86YoNXFJh0/UYLfVpIMtOI/AAAAAAAACf0/xtb5O0GWJL8/s1600/Boston_Startup_Map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x86YoNXFJh0/UYLfVpIMtOI/AAAAAAAACf0/xtb5O0GWJL8/s320/Boston_Startup_Map.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">The <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/blog/2455/the-boston-startup-map-visualizing-the-citys-tech-scene" target="_blank">Boston startup ecosystem</a> is THRIVING. &nbsp;Numerous companies that I&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">personally know are building exciting, long-term businesses. &nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To celebrate this vibrancy, the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA) held the NEVYs last night, their first, annual awards ceremony to recognize various achievements in the Boston startup community. &nbsp;</span><br /><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" target="_blank">Kinvey</a> was nominated in the hottest startup category and I was a candidate for the Rising Entrepreneur Award. &nbsp;(Rob Go has a wonderful post on his <a href="http://robgo.org/2013/05/02/boston-strong/" target="_blank">thoughts about the NEVYs</a>, which you should read, and here a list of the <a href="http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/04/10/the-top-entrepreneurs-and-vcs-in-boston-nevca-names-award-finalists/" target="_blank">nominees</a> and the <a href="http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/05/02/boston-venture-capitalist-spark-bessemer-nextview-more-bring-home-vc-awards/" target="_blank">winners</a>). &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn’t expect it, but I was given the Rising Entrepreneur Award. &nbsp;I was overjoyed. &nbsp;But not for the reasons you would think --</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You see, I was in San Francisco on April 15th 2013, the day of the Boston marathon bombings. &nbsp;I was in a meeting, when my phone started going off and I quickly learnt about the horrible event. &nbsp;I was scheduled to be in the bay area for the entire week and that made me feel helpless. &nbsp;I couldn’t come back, I was away from home and I didn’t know what I could do. &nbsp;I couldn’t be in Boston with my wife or my team at Kinvey. &nbsp;Calls, text messages, emails and Twitter were my primary ways to stay in touch</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My worry and frustration quickly turned to pride and amazement. &nbsp;Over the next few days, the Boston Startup community stepped into action. &nbsp;Through sheer will, hustle, creativity and a stubbornness to do the right thing (all great startup human qualities, by the way), people started to lean in and help:</span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dear friend Phil Beauregard (CEO of <a href="http://objectivelogistics.com/" target="_blank">Objective Logistics</a>) used Twitter to raise money to help the victims of the attack. &nbsp;His initial goal was to raise $50K, and he ended up raising <a href="https://www.fundraise.com/technology-supports-victims-of-boston-marathon-bombing1" target="_blank">$280K+ in a WEEK!</a> &nbsp;When he had issues, folks like Jeff Fagnan and others stepped in to help. &nbsp;Amazing!</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Kirsner </span><a href="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/04/startups_and_venture_capital_f.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">came up with the idea of #BackToBackBay</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, to get the Boston community to make a commitment to go and visit the retailers, bars and restaurants in the marathon bombing neighborhood to help them recover some of the money they lost when that area was shut down for days.</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ben Carcio (CEO of </span><a href="http://www.promoboxx.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Promoboxx</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">) got his team to create an </span><a href="http://engine.promoboxx.com/client/backtobackbay/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">online infographic </a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that showcased all the Back Bay businesses, and got people to share which pubs, shops and restaurants there were going to go to. &nbsp;I saw Tweets from various people saying they were “going #BackToBackBay to support &lt;business name&gt;, a local retailer affected by the Marathon Bombings.”</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wayne Chang (GM of <a href="http://www.crashlytics.com/" target="_blank">Twitter Boston</a>) stayed up for, what seemed like, countless hours, live-tweeting every step of the hunt for Suspect #2, and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/sravish/status/325399412467699712" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">in my opinion, his coverage was even better than CNN</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another group of people that work at Boston startups organized “</span><a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/04/21/startup-community-tech-rocks-for-boston" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Techies Rock For Boston</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">,” featuring various musical performances by folks including Andrew Nalband of Ubersense, Dave Bisceglia of The Tap Lab, Chris Howard of Libboo, and Kinvey’s own Kelly Rice.</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could go on and on, and a few others have even made a few&nbsp;<a href="http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/04/16/get-help-give-help-boston-tech-reacts-to-marathon-bombings/" target="_blank">lists</a>&nbsp;that describe some of the initiatives by the Boston startup community. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As someone who is new to Boston (I moved here in 2009), I've always been grateful for how the startup community has made me, an outsider, feel welcome. &nbsp;And that&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">entire week in California, I felt like an outsider again, stuck in the other side of the country and&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">looking in, only to see MY Boston startup community come together and execute for a good cause. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And to be recognized with an award for being part of this tight, collaborative, helpful, community, feels…. well… pretty damn awesome!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_2SPXuctzQI/UYLWqMN87II/AAAAAAAACfY/HNyOhkmgA2I/s1600/Nevys_Awards_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_2SPXuctzQI/UYLWqMN87II/AAAAAAAACfY/HNyOhkmgA2I/s320/Nevys_Awards_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2013/05/some-thoughts-on-nevys-and-boston.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-9110310041768595316Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:52:00 +00002013-04-19T08:08:17.854-04:00StartupsWant to make Boston a better startup community? Be an early adopter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just finished reading Brad Feld’s new book,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Communities-Building-Entrepreneurial-Ecosystem/dp/1118441540" href="http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Communities-Building-Entrepreneurial-Ecosystem/dp/1118441540" target="_blank" title="Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City">Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in your City</a>. In it, Brad states that sustainable entrepreneurial communities must have:</span></div><ul style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Active entrepreneurs who will be the leaders to drive the community forward,</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A long-term view and commitment to build the community,</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A continual set of activities that engage the entire entrepreneurial stack, and</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An inherent view of inclusiveness that ensures that anyone is welcome to participate -- not just entrepreneurs.</span></li></ul><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lBR0yvArIQY/UXEzJ5x1qrI/AAAAAAAACe0/DmrQFj7YkMc/s1600/Startup_Community.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Startup Community" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lBR0yvArIQY/UXEzJ5x1qrI/AAAAAAAACe0/DmrQFj7YkMc/s1600/Startup_Community.jpg" title="Startup Community" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a similar theme, Mark Suster, in a&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/27/12-tips-to-building-a-successful-startup-community-where-you-live/" href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/27/12-tips-to-building-a-successful-startup-community-where-you-live/" target="_blank" title="TechCrunch">guest post in TechCrunch</a>, adds that a successful startup community must also have a strong pool of tech founders, capital, well-attended events, great local universities, vocal champions, vibrant local press, etc.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite embodying all the traits that Brad and Mark have outlined, I’ve repeatedly seen Boston, my current hometown, suffer from the burden of constantly&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/04/my-ordeal%E2%80%94and-the-firestorm%E2%80%94in-boston/" href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/04/my-ordeal%E2%80%94and-the-firestorm%E2%80%94in-boston/" target="_blank">justifying</a>&nbsp;itself to the world as a thriving startup community. I’ve concluded that there is one more essential ingredient Boston needs to be a successful startup community – Boston needs early adopter DNA, especially to try early-stage, Boston-built, startup products.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we could successfully mutate the startup gene of the Boston startup community to introduce early adopter DNA, we would create a huge advantage for startups that are built here. Their launches will be “buzzier,” their products will get traction faster, and most importantly, the companies will enjoy informed feedback from key members of its own community. Feedback and buzz from early adoption is an invaluable asset for any startup, and we can give them that.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For Boston (or any startup community) to have early adopter DNA, it needs its startup leaders and the extended community that supports the ecosystem to do three things –</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a data-mce-href="http://dharmeshshah.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Pic-2.png" href="http://dharmeshshah.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Pic-2.png"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DOiwGEqgSWE/ULYKB6jA1pI/AAAAAAAACdQ/tg8wMEGGKG0/s1600/Rich_Miner_Seeking.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DOiwGEqgSWE/ULYKB6jA1pI/AAAAAAAACdQ/tg8wMEGGKG0/s320/Rich_Miner_Seeking.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1.&nbsp;<strong>Be Curious</strong>: We need to collectively spend more time seeking out new startups and learning about their products.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Follow&nbsp;key Boston startup community leaders on Twitter like&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/dharmesh" href="http://www.twitter.com/dharmesh">Dharmesh Shah</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/mattlauzon" href="http://www.twitter.com/mattlauzon">Matt Lauzon</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/ktrae" href="http://www.twitter.com/ktrae">Katie Rae</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/jenniferlum" href="http://www.twitter.com/jenniferlum">Jennifer Lum</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/dcancel" href="http://www.twitter.com/dcancel">David Cancel</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/fdestin" href="http://www.twitter.com/fdestin">Fred Destin</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/richminer" href="http://www.twitter.com/richminer">Rich Miner</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/antrod" href="http://www.twitter.com/antrod">Antonio Rodriguez</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/robgo" href="http://www.twitter.com/robgo">Rob Go</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/bostonvc" href="https://twitter.com/bostonvc">David Skok</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/bussgang" href="https://twitter.com/bussgang">Jeff Bussgang</a>, etc. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Read&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.bostinno.com/" href="http://www.bostinno.com/">BostInno</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/" href="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/">Scott Kirsner</a>&nbsp;in the Boston Globe,&nbsp;&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.xconomy.com/boston/" href="http://www.xconomy.com/boston/">Xconomy</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/">Boston Business Journal</a>.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Learn, learn and learn!</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em><br /><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2.&nbsp;<strong>Be Adventurous</strong>: When you read or hear about a new Boston startup, don’t hesitate - sign up and try its product. There are startups in Boston that cater to your every need -</span><br /><a data-mce-href="http://dharmeshshah.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Pic-3.png" href="http://dharmeshshah.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Pic-3.png"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f4CmkpMu8uA/ULYKJp-9CUI/AAAAAAAACdY/P_RV6zzk6bI/s1600/Brad-Feld-Trying_Products.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f4CmkpMu8uA/ULYKJp-9CUI/AAAAAAAACdY/P_RV6zzk6bI/s1600/Brad-Feld-Trying_Products.jpg" /></a></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every salesperson should try&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.yesware.com/" href="http://www.yesware.com/">Yesware</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every sportsperson should download&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.ubersense.com/" href="http://www.ubersense.com/">UberSense</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every student and guidance counselor should use&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.testive.com/" href="http://www.testive.com/">Testive</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.boundless.com/" href="http://www.boundless.com/">Boundless</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every private equity and venture capital firm in town should be calling&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="https://www.bisonalternatives.com/" href="https://www.bisonalternatives.com/">Bison</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every real estate agent should talk to&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.placester.com/" href="http://www.placester.com/">Placester</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every Google Apps user should use&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.backupify.com/" href="http://www.backupify.com/">Backupify</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every sales manager should try&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.insightsquared.com/" href="http://www.insightsquared.com/">InsightSquared</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every college should engage with&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.evertrue.com/" href="http://www.evertrue.com/">EverTrue</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every gamer should play&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.thetaplab.com/" href="http://www.thetaplab.com/">TapCity</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every marketer should sign up for&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.hubspot.com/" href="http://www.hubspot.com/">HubSpot</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every brand that has a retailer network should try&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.promoboxx.com/" href="http://www.promoboxx.com/" target="_blank" title="Promoboxx">Promoboxx</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every mobile marketer should talk to&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.sessionm.com/" href="http://www.sessionm.com/">SessionM</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.adelphic.com/" href="http://www.adelphic.com/">Adelphic</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every mom should download&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.fetchnotes.com/" href="http://www.fetchnotes.com/">FetchNotes</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every restaurant should get in touch with&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.objectivelogistics.com/" href="http://www.objectivelogistics.com/">Objective Logistics</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every developer should sign up for&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.kinvey.com/" href="http://www.kinvey.com/">Kinvey</a>,&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://xamarin.com/" href="http://xamarin.com/">Xamarin</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://www.cloudant.com/" href="http://www.cloudant.com/">Cloudant</a></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could go on and on. In Cambridge alone, there are hundreds of startups in a one-mile radius. And Boston has hundreds more. Ask yourself, how many of their products have you used?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iFxikDHJmFE/ULYKeYY1cEI/AAAAAAAACdg/4Ng-lJ-GCEY/s1600/Social_Share_FB_Twitter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iFxikDHJmFE/ULYKeYY1cEI/AAAAAAAACdg/4Ng-lJ-GCEY/s1600/Social_Share_FB_Twitter.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3.&nbsp;<strong>Be Talkative</strong>:&nbsp;<em>Trying</em>&nbsp;a startup’s product is only the beginning. To truly become a vibrant entrepreneurial scene, we also need to support fellow startups with word of mouth. Tell&nbsp;your friends about your favorite local products, tweet and share your experience on Facebook. Better yet, blog about&nbsp;it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Help&nbsp;<em>your following</em>&nbsp;become Curious and Adventurous. And don’t forget to share your product feedback with the startups behind the product. I can assure you that every startup wants to hear about your experience with their product, it’s how we will improve.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we seek out innovation, are willing to kick the tires of early stage products, and be vocal about our experiences, Boston will become a stronger startup community. The ripples from this early adopter DNA being put into practice will encourage more people from the broader community to do the same, and I assure you, we will all be stronger for it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: This article was originally posted on&nbsp;<a data-mce-href="http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/92539/How-To-Help-Startup-Ecosystems-Be-An-Early-Adopter.aspx" href="http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/92539/How-To-Help-Startup-Ecosystems-Be-An-Early-Adopter.aspx" target="_blank" title="How To Help Startup Ecosystems: Be An Early Adopter">OnStartups</a>&nbsp;on 11/27/2012</span></div></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/11/want-to-make-boston-better-startup.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-2105573978879052549Mon, 26 Nov 2012 03:28:00 +00002012-11-26T03:31:36.839-05:00KinveyStartupsTeamIt Takes a Team to Build a Startup -- My Thanks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XcdUgRgs6dU/ULLhwcgTCaI/AAAAAAAACc4/z5ITuZTP0RI/s1600/tug_of_war.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XcdUgRgs6dU/ULLhwcgTCaI/AAAAAAAACc4/z5ITuZTP0RI/s320/tug_of_war.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am thankful that I have a fantastic and supportive family, loyal and I’m-always-there-for-you friends, and an amazing group of mentors and investors that constantly help me in my entrepreneurial journey. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, the group that I’m the most thankful for, and at the same time, proud of, is <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/about" target="_blank"><b>my team at Kinvey</b></a>. &nbsp; They are supremely talented, funny, serious, committed, dependable and the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">hardest working</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">&nbsp;crew of people that I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, thank you –&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Annie: &nbsp;</b>For building and growing our partner and enterprise customer relationships, taking mountains of other work off my plate, and being a confidant.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Brian: &nbsp;</b>For being the first ‘stranger’ to join our team and still making Kinvey your own, becoming the torchbearer for much of the innovation we have produced, and blossoming into ‘the guy’ that everyone goes to.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Brian:</b> &nbsp;For being an inbound marketing wizard and ‘creator of pipes’, using your excruciatingly detail-oriented skills to move the needle one visit and sign up at a time, and making me laugh at the most unexpected times.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Caroline:</b> &nbsp;For being&nbsp;incredibly&nbsp;diligent in supporting our customers and coming up with new ways to help us serve them better, affecting our product roadmap to ensure that we’re doing what our customers want, and keeping Eli in check. ☺</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Dave:</b> &nbsp;For moving to Cambridge to join Kinvey and creating a new life here, taking over and owning our entire visual experience while striving to learn more, and putting up with my daily antics.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Elaine:</b> &nbsp;For helping build our team as we grow into a ‘real company’, fostering our culture, and guiding me on things I can do to become a better CEO.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Eli:</b> &nbsp;For executing at an insane pace and being the ‘first one in’, pushing us by asking tough questions that ensure that we are fanatical about our customers, and being the 2nd funniest member of our team.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Ivan:</b> &nbsp;For delivering everything (and more than) you sign up for, thinking about and managing the rhythm of our engineering team, being my rock, and finishing my sentences.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Jake:</b> &nbsp;For being the creator of beautiful things, taking sparks of an idea and turning them into visual stories, and showing us (slowly) that behind your understated and philosophical nature, lies a mind of an artistic savant. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Joe:</b> &nbsp;For being the ‘creator of water’ by leading our effort to evangelize, define and grow <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backend_as_a_service" target="_blank"><b>Backend as a Service</b></a>, scaring our competition into doing irrational, knee-jerk and amusing things, and bringing me calm.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Kelly:</b> &nbsp;For Getting S**t Done day-in and day-out, setting the standard on what we can do as a team with focus and hard work, and astonishing me with how you’re growing into a world-class marketer.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lauren:</b> &nbsp;For seeking us out and joining our team, learning and executing at a fast and furious pace, and getting excited about every thing you do and doing it well, which is infectious.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Mark:</b> &nbsp;For trusting us with your future and moving to the US to build your career, showing us how magic can be created with just a laptop, a pair of headphones and Eurodance/trance music, and giving me the honor of being mentioned in a piece of Computer Science literature (which I was surely never going to have accomplished myself).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Mike:</b> &nbsp;For being the internal voice for what our customers want and helping us become a delight for them to use, ensuring that we put in the effort to do things right, and always having the right answer when I come to you with a question.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Morgan:</b> &nbsp;For your commitment to help build a great business, readiness to be the what’s-next guy, and motivating me when I see you push and extend yourself to get better every day.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Ryan:</b> &nbsp;For being a pinnacle of efficiency and getting things done at an amazing pace, your passion to build something special, and inspiring me with the community work you do outside of Kinvey.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sandeep:</b> &nbsp;For your creative ideas that are helping us build exponential value, drawing on your experience to help us deliver the next big cloud platform in Cambridge, and sending me emails at 3 and 4 in the morning. ☺&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Shubhang:</b> &nbsp;For ensuring that we don’t go down, being there whenever I’ve needed you, and for your insanely witty brain that makes you the funniest person in the company.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">P.S. – I think this is the fastest (and easiest) blog post I’ve written. &nbsp;That says something.&nbsp;</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/11/it-takes-team-to-build-startup-my-thanks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-7845869716076942259Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:35:00 +00002012-09-12T16:40:11.414-04:00PrioritizationHow I work: Live life as if you never work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IORH6uxWbzM/UFDw_pTv70I/AAAAAAAACa8/Rn5OXhtP2Iw/s1600/Workaholic.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IORH6uxWbzM/UFDw_pTv70I/AAAAAAAACa8/Rn5OXhtP2Iw/s320/Workaholic.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love it when I talk to someone and they tell me, “Wow. You live such a great life. Do you ever work?” &nbsp;</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This usually happens after we have a conversation about my family, what I do for a living, things I do for fun, places I travel to, people I meet, books I read, etc. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am blessed to lead a fantastic and well-rounded life. &nbsp;At the same time, I work my butt off. &nbsp;I spend every waking minute, much to the frustration of my family and friends, thinking about <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" target="_blank">Kinvey</a>, our market, and our team. &nbsp;I’m an Inbox-Zero junkie, believer in ‘if you can do it yourself, then do it’, and worst of all, I’m a self-diagnosed, borderline, compulsive perfectionist.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is VERY hard for me, not to work.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I break down my day into 7 activity segments:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Personal Time with my family&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Personal Time with friends (old and new)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Personal Time for home stuff&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Personal and Work Time ALONE (read, learn, do things I personally need to do for the business, etc.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Work Time with 3rd-parties to grow our business (customers, partners, press, etc.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Work Time meeting new people (networking, new recruits, etc.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Work Time with my Kinvey peeps (team, investors, mentors, Board, etc.)</span></li></ol><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m always doing at least a few of these activities every day, but there is usually more of activities 4-7 happening, instead of 1-3. (Did someone say workaholic?)&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So why do people, sometimes feel, that I never work? &nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You HAVE to feel that you are making the most out of everything you do. &nbsp;When that happens, everyone around you will clearly see you’re happy and living a full life. I personally derive the most out of an activity if any of these 3 things happen –</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I feel challenged</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m learning, and</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m smiling</span></li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m not in a good place if I’m not doing at least 1 of these 3 things.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, when I talk about my family, what I do for a living, things I do for fun, places I travel to, people I meet, books I read, etc., I always speak about how I’m feeling motivated, how I’m trying new things, and why I’m so happy with everything going on. &nbsp;It’s infectious. &nbsp;You should try it!</span></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/09/how-i-work-how-to-live-life-as-if-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-5290092696369562247Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:45:00 +00002012-09-03T14:18:54.482-04:00Dharmesh ShahMentorsStartups5 Things I Have Learnt from Dharmesh Shah<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ko3V-druZGw/UEToPnJ6BbI/AAAAAAAACZ0/Q7TlIK3FpBU/s1600/0_Dharmesh_Shah_Beard.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ko3V-druZGw/UEToPnJ6BbI/AAAAAAAACZ0/Q7TlIK3FpBU/s1600/0_Dharmesh_Shah_Beard.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t personally know <a href="http://onstartups.com/About/AboutOnStartupscom/tabid/5219/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Dharmesh Shah</a>. &nbsp;He isn’t a mentor or an investor in <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" target="_blank">Kinvey</a>. &nbsp;I first heard of Dharmesh when I moved to Boston in 2009 and spent a year meeting and getting to know people in the Boston startup ecosystem. &nbsp;Dharmesh’s name kept cropping up quickly and regularly in my meetings, and on researching him further, I became an ardent reader of <a href="http://onstartups.com/" target="_blank">his blog</a> and I’ve followed his musings on <a href="http://twitter.com/dharmesh" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. I finally met a bearded Dharmesh in early 2010, and after that brief encounter, I’ve spent 2 minutes with him on one other occasion, at the UnConference organized by Bill Warner.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In spite of having only known the man from afar, Dharmesh has inspired me in my entrepreneurial journey, and some of his actions have influenced core strategies I have employed to build Kinvey. &nbsp;In no particular order, here are 5 things I've learnt from Dharmesh Shah –&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fyRP3R14OIY/UEToX1MC59I/AAAAAAAACZ8/kXqF4Vn6BbU/s1600/1_Dharmesh_Shah_Inbound_Marketing.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fyRP3R14OIY/UEToX1MC59I/AAAAAAAACZ8/kXqF4Vn6BbU/s1600/1_Dharmesh_Shah_Inbound_Marketing.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. &nbsp;</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Create a Category:</b> &nbsp;I have always admired how Dharmesh and Brian Halligan coined “<a href="http://www.inboundmarketing.com/" target="_blank">Inbound Marketing</a>” to describe what HubSpot does. &nbsp;It’s genius because it helps you clearly define why your market and company is different, gets you and your team to stay on message about who you are, and shows the industry that the status quo just doesn’t cut it and that there’s a much-needed, different and innovative approach to achieve your goals.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I did the same thing by coining <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/blog/item/119-mobile-cloud-backend-as-a-service-ecosystem-map-all-roads-lead-to-baas" target="_blank">Backend as a Service in May 2011</a> to describe what Kinvey does. &nbsp;Since then the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/04/mobile-backend-as-a-service-ec.php" target="_blank">press</a>, <a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/michael_facemire/12-04-25-mobile_backend_as_a_service_the_new_lightweight_middleware" target="_blank">analysts</a>, and independent <a href="http://apievangelist.com/2012/08/22/mobile-backend-as-a-service-roundup-and-the-future-of-web-apis/" target="_blank">developer evangelists</a> have covered it as a space. &nbsp;Backend as a Service is now a <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/blog/item/193-ecosystem-map-update-migration-toward-the-middle" target="_blank">growing ecosystem</a> with 25+ startups (and even <a href="http://gigaom.com/cloud/microsoft-joins-startups-in-building-the-new-app-infrastructure-stack/" target="_blank">Microsoft</a>) looking to innovate and bring value to the next generation of mobile and web developers.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ytdulDWZsyQ/UETqU0ykuLI/AAAAAAAACaE/IU24t28f6oI/s1600/2_Dharmesh_Shah_Story.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ytdulDWZsyQ/UETqU0ykuLI/AAAAAAAACaE/IU24t28f6oI/s1600/2_Dharmesh_Shah_Story.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2. &nbsp;Be a memorable presenter</b>: &nbsp;Dharmesh often confesses that he is an introvert at heart. &nbsp;He says he has to pump himself up to present in front of an audience and being amongst crowds for long periods of time drains him of his energy. But this doesn’t stop him from being a fantastic presenter. &nbsp;Numerous anecdotes I’ve heard and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dharmesh+shah" target="_blank">online videos I’ve seen</a>, attest to the fact that Dharmesh is a memorable presenter and can tell a truly unique, creative and memorable story. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I now find myself spending days (and sometimes weeks) preparing for a presentation and asking the question, “what’s my story arc?” &nbsp;I work hard on every pitch – everything from a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozboLfKlOqE" target="_blank">TechStars demo-day presentation</a> to our monthly team all-hands at Kinvey. &nbsp;Telling a memorable story helps your audience associate you with your message and your company. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EIOi1cz8u7A/UETrTxPf7FI/AAAAAAAACaM/lzhz0L0r3EM/s1600/4_Dharmesh_Shah_Angel.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EIOi1cz8u7A/UETrTxPf7FI/AAAAAAAACaM/lzhz0L0r3EM/s1600/4_Dharmesh_Shah_Angel.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3. &nbsp;Bring value to your community:</b> &nbsp;Apart from being the Co-Founder and CTO at HubSpot, Dharmesh is an <a href="http://onstartups.com/" target="_blank">active startup blogger</a>, angel investor and mentor to numerous startups. &nbsp;Entrepreneurs I know swear by the value he brings them. &nbsp; I can only guess that Dharmesh is so active in the startup ecosystem because he finds it hugely motivating to know and invest in hungry and intelligent entrepreneurs, think about and help them through new ideas they have, and see them work hard and succeed.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am, by no means, in the same position as Dharmesh to invest in 50-100 startups or help numerous entrepreneurs by drawing on a long and diverse set of entrepreneurial experiences and contacts. &nbsp;But the little investing I’ve done and assistance I have given, has been selfishly awesome. &nbsp;Why selfish – because contrary to what you may think, I believe it has actually provided more value to me than to the entrepreneurs I work with. &nbsp;I learn about new markets, ponder other points of view, observe different team dynamics, and see how startups are built with strategies I haven’t thought of. &nbsp;Like I said – selfishly awesome!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AsS8NIP24eQ/UETrbq1US_I/AAAAAAAACaU/o34PEHEKuIA/s1600/3_Dharmesh_Shah_Learn.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AsS8NIP24eQ/UETrbq1US_I/AAAAAAAACaU/o34PEHEKuIA/s1600/3_Dharmesh_Shah_Learn.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4. &nbsp;Work hard to constantly learn:</b> &nbsp;For those of you who follow <a href="http://twitter.com/dharmesh" target="_blank">Dharmesh on Twitter</a>, you know by now that he’s a night owl. &nbsp;He’s constantly reading something different, experimenting with new programming languages or coding up a what’s-next project. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last year, I’ve become ritualistic about spending my nights and early mornings thinking about what’s next. &nbsp;This involves researching my space, the competition, our partners and other players in the ecosystem, and coming up with theories on how the market will evolve. &nbsp;It helps me plan for the future and carve out our strategy based on customer feedback, peripheral and direct trends in the market and tons of other learning.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tv5Fy_DDVI0/UETrhlS5MeI/AAAAAAAACac/7yYhxx5A7hA/s1600/5_Dharmesh_Shah_Family.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tv5Fy_DDVI0/UETrhlS5MeI/AAAAAAAACac/7yYhxx5A7hA/s1600/5_Dharmesh_Shah_Family.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5. &nbsp;Live your life while you live your startup:</b> &nbsp;Dharmesh’s stories about his family always make me smile. My impression (from afar) is that he consciously tries very hard to play an active role at home. &nbsp;I can’t say anything more because I really don’t know him, but what he publicly shares about his family life is remarkable. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is extremely hard to physically and mentally <i>"be home"</i> day-in and day-out. &nbsp;Something always happens that’s important and pressing – customer meetings, investor conversations, reviewing plans, paying bills, 1-1s with your team, speaking engagements, preparing for tomorrow – the list is endless. &nbsp;Committing and planning my time at home is quite possibly my single greatest challenge as an entrepreneur. &nbsp;I’m still not very good at it, but I will get better.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you know Dharmesh and have learnt other things from him or have similar observations, I’d love for you to share. &nbsp; And Dharmesh, if you’re reading this, Thank you.</span></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/09/5-things-i-have-learnt-from-dharmesh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-4589006148725189014Sat, 23 Jun 2012 06:08:00 +00002012-06-23T02:19:21.213-04:00MarketingSkillsHardest Startup Hire in Boston is an Online Marketer (Not an Engineer)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-htVZTZTz9i0/T-Vcvn6SezI/AAAAAAAACSE/jyBX-Bdb0cI/s1600/Pink-Unicorn.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-htVZTZTz9i0/T-Vcvn6SezI/AAAAAAAACSE/jyBX-Bdb0cI/s200/Pink-Unicorn.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last few months, I’ve had numerous conversations with entrepreneurs and investors about hiring. &nbsp;Most CEOs expanding their company would say that it’s the single hardest thing from them to do, and do well. &nbsp;For a lot of them, it’s become quite fashionable to say that it’s impossible to find great developers. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, if you dig deeper, you’ll find that a majority of growing startups in Boston have top-class engineering teams. &nbsp;What’s missing in their office is a creative, data-driven, hard-working, social, content-creating Online Marketer. &nbsp; An Online Marketer is the hardest hire to find in Boston.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week, I even asked the question on Twitter, “What’s the hardest hire to recruit for in Boston?” &nbsp;Here is a piece of the conversation (you’ll have to read it from the bottom-up) –&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QY4c2MVCeec/T-VcokHMHDI/AAAAAAAACR8/UHm6biudKUs/s1600/Growth_Hacker_In_Boston.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="348" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QY4c2MVCeec/T-VcokHMHDI/AAAAAAAACR8/UHm6biudKUs/s400/Growth_Hacker_In_Boston.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, why are Online Marketers so elusive in Boston? &nbsp;Simple. &nbsp;There is a huge gap between what marketers think their skills need to be and what the startup CEOs want from Online Marketers. &nbsp;Here’s what the CEOs want (and they want it all) -</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Be a hard-working DOER:</b> &nbsp;Enough said.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Be creative:</b> Show that you can research and create new types of content and WOW people! &nbsp;You’ll have to create mail campaigns, videos, infographics, how-to guides, blog posts, funny Tweets, quirky promotions, etc. &nbsp;If you’re experienced, show how YOU did it in your previous job (not your old team, not your old boss – YOU). &nbsp;If you’ve got no experience, research the company you’re interviewing with, create interesting content and show them what you can do.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Be social:</b> &nbsp;How can you claim to be a social media expert if it’s not in your DNA? &nbsp;Most CEOs don’t buy into marketers that don’t have a professional and active social media brand. &nbsp;Start blogging, be active on Twitter, keep your LinkedIn profile updated, etc. &nbsp;Don’t say things like “I’ve never used Pinterest,”or whatever the current social media trend is – you’ll have to know it all.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Be strategic:</b> So, you can build creative content. Great! &nbsp;But, where are you going to publish it? &nbsp;It’s not enough that you just post it on a blog or Tweet it. &nbsp;What else? &nbsp;Where do your customers live? &nbsp;What kind of content would each part of your customer demographic be interested in? &nbsp;In essence, can you think strategically and come up with different marketing campaigns (why, what, for whom, and where to publish) and execute on each one?</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Be critical and data-driven:</b> &nbsp;Analyze what’s working and what’s cost-effective. &nbsp;Show that you know how to use Google Analytics, HubSpot, KissMetrics, etc. &nbsp;If you’ve never done it, get a free account and learn. &nbsp;You are going to live your numbers every day. Analytics, experiments, segmentation, and testing are in your blood; CAC, LTV, MRR, and ARR are in your dreams. &nbsp;Be prepared to pull up various analytics consoles and spreadsheets in an interview and walk through inbound lead and conversion numbers.&nbsp;</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Create repeatability:</b> Determine how to cost-effectively reach the right customers online, analyzing and measuring the success of your tactics to create leads and how they convert into customers. &nbsp;Have you used Rapportive, FullContact, etc.? &nbsp;Do you know who your best customers are? &nbsp;You’ll be the sales team’s best friend and the more you can automate customer profiling, the better. &nbsp;</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Be an all-rounder:</b> Yes, you will focus on Online Marketing. &nbsp;But you’ll have to do it all - Content creation, SEO/SEM, marketing automation, branding, promotions, conferences, Marcom, Social Media content, PR, and tactics you’ve never even thought of.&nbsp;</span></li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You think this is a hard job? &nbsp;You bet it is! &nbsp;Online Marketers work harder than anyone else in the company because every day is an opportunity to reach 100s or 1000s of potential customers. &nbsp;And the thrill and satisfaction of seeing the success of your marketing efforts bear fruit, day in and day out – well, that’s just awesome!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, if you’re reading this and believe you’re an Online Marketer – reach out to the various startup CEOs in Boston. &nbsp;Show them that you’re a creative, data-driven, hard-working, social, content-creating machine. &nbsp;And remember, when you’re negotiating your salary package with them, you’re the hardest hire for them to find in Boston. &nbsp;You’re worth your weight in gold!&nbsp;</span></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/06/hardest-startup-hire-in-boston-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-4788130882633374848Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:41:00 +00002012-03-13T15:58:55.874-04:00MentorsDon't be a LinkedIn Mentor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8FKAGNbDsfc/T1-kwGQGszI/AAAAAAAACHs/-1kxrHDwC5Q/s1600/Be_A_Mentor.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8FKAGNbDsfc/T1-kwGQGszI/AAAAAAAACHs/-1kxrHDwC5Q/s200/Be_A_Mentor.png" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last few weeks, I have read two incredible posts on how to be a useful and successful mentor. The first was by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fdestin" target="_blank">Fred Destin</a> on the “<a href="http://freddestin.com/2012/03/startup-mentoring-the-socratic-way.html" target="_blank"><i>Socratic Way of Startup Mentoring</i></a>”, and the second was by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jenniferlum" target="_blank">Jennifer Lum</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davebalter" target="_blank">Dave Balter</a> on “<a href="http://bostinno.com/2012/03/13/something-magical-is-happening-in-boston-right-now-and-its-going-to-make-history/" target="_blank"><i>Spiderweb Mentorship</i></a>”. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is one issue however, that these posts, and others like them, seem to neglect – <b><i>Mentors-Only-By-Name</i></b>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At a recent CEO dinner, a friend of mine, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/brentgrinna" target="_blank">Brent Grinna</a> (CEO of <a href="http://www.evertrue.com/" target="_blank">EverTrue</a>) raised the issue that startup accelerators and incubators such as <a href="http://www.ycombinator.com/" target="_blank">Y-Combinator</a>, <a href="http://www.techstars.com/" target="_blank">TechStars</a>, <a href="http://www.500.co/" target="_blank">500 Startups</a>, <a href="http://www.seedcamp.com/" target="_blank">SeedCamp</a>, etc., have 100s of mentors listed on their sites. But, when you go through one of these programs, you realize that –&nbsp;</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrDq8wU2Edg/T1-kXLzge1I/AAAAAAAACHk/ctqwosYKQmA/s1600/Fake_Mentor.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrDq8wU2Edg/T1-kXLzge1I/AAAAAAAACHk/ctqwosYKQmA/s200/Fake_Mentor.png" width="200" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Only a small percentage of the mentors are actively involved in the program,&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few mentors are available to help you if you approach them via email, but it’s typically REALLY hard to get hold of them, and&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of the mentors in the mentor list, and surprisingly even those who call themselves “<i>(insert accelerator name)&nbsp;</i></span><insert accelerator="" name="" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Mentor</i>” on their LinkedIn profiles, don’t help any of the startups and don’t even respond to emails when you ask them for help.&nbsp;</insert></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Here’s my request -</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you consider yourself to be a mentor, and if you especially go as far as calling yourself one on your LinkedIn profile and/or have yourself showcased as a mentor on a website, then commit to being a mentor. If you can’t, then -&nbsp;</span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stop calling yourself mentor,&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take it off your LinkedIn profile, and&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Request to be deleted from the various websites.&nbsp;</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being a mentor should be a <b>badge of honor</b>. Please treat it as one.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/03/dont-be-linkedin-mentor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-8470844549043852655Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:23:00 +00002012-02-10T09:49:38.100-05:00Mentor UpdatesTechStarsWriting Effective Mentor Updates (at TechStars)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday, I spent the evening with <a href="http://twitter.com/pistachio" target="_blank">Laura Finton</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/analyticsraj" target="_blank">Raj Agarwal</a> at TechStars Boston. &nbsp;I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the <a href="http://www.techstars.com/techstars-picks-13-companies-for-winter-2012-session-in-boston/" target="_blank">13 companies</a> that <a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/krae/" target="_blank">Katie Rae</a> has selected this year. As always, she continues to amaze and surprise me with her knack of bringing fantastic people together (my post on Katie will have to wait for another day).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fyk03siwQ1A/TzSaJD3ovAI/AAAAAAAACCs/NzUlrJG-Vkc/s1600/status_update.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fyk03siwQ1A/TzSaJD3ovAI/AAAAAAAACCs/NzUlrJG-Vkc/s320/status_update.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During the session, I was asked about how I communicated with our mentors when <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" target="_blank">Kinvey</a> was in TechStars. &nbsp;This topic was clearly on everyone's mind because the discussion around engaging mentors and updating them, went on for about 15 minutes. &nbsp;And, as a follow-up, later on that night, I received an email from one of the companies in the current class, asking me if I could send them a copy of the weekly email I sent mentors.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have found that it is extremely difficult to send useful, effective and actionable updates to your mentors. &nbsp;I haven't quite mastered the art yet. &nbsp;So, please take the format in this post with a HUGE shaker of salt. &nbsp;To see another way of sending out updates, you can visit this great post by Rob May, titled, <a href="http://coconutheadsets.com/2011/07/12/how-to-communicate-with-investors-tips-for-new-ceos/" target="_blank">How to Communicate with Investors. Tips for New CEOs</a>. &nbsp;At the end, make up your own mind on how you want to send your updates.</span><br /><br><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, for what it's worth, here's what I did at TechStars:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Goal Setting:</u></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we started the program, we sat down as a team and attempted to clearly articulate our goals for the program. &nbsp;We decided that the goals have to be consistent throughout the program, so that the updates we sent our mentors followed the same format week-in and week-out.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once we came to an agreement on our goals, (most of) our mentors found that the updates were easy to track and remember over 3 months due to the consistency of format. &nbsp;And, every task we undertook was aimed at meeting our&nbsp;goals. &nbsp;We tried to stay very disciplined with this process.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the format of the email we sent EVERY week -&nbsp;</span><br /><br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have<b> 4 </b>Goals during TechStars:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(Key: &nbsp; <b><span style="color: #274e13;">&lt;On Track&gt;</span></b>, &nbsp; <b><span style="color: #b45f06;">&lt;Need to hustle&gt;</span></b>, &nbsp; <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">&lt;We're sucking wind&gt;</span></b>)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. &nbsp;Goal 1 heading (this was a product goal)</b></span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First thing we said we would do this week, and did we do it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second thing we said we would do this week, and did we do it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What we are going to do next week</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">Goal Tracking:</span></b> &nbsp;Summarize how we were doing against the overall goal?</span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>- Request:</b> If we had a request for our mentors to help us with this goal, we'd ask</i></span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2. &nbsp;Goal 2 heading (this was a user/customer goal and was&nbsp;a set of metrics)</b></span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First thing we said we would do this week, and did we do it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second thing we said we would do this week, and did we do it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What we are going to do next week</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">Goal Tracking: </span></b>&nbsp;Summarize how we were doing against the overall goal?</span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>- Request:</b>&nbsp;If we had a request for our mentors to help us with this goal, we'd ask</i></span><br /><div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />3. &nbsp;Goal 3 heading (this was a biz dev/revenue goal and was&nbsp;a set of metrics)</b></span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First thing we said we would do this week, and did we do it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second thing we said we would do this week, and did we do it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What we are going to do next week</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Goal Tracking: </b></span>&nbsp;Summarize how we were doing against the overall goal?</span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>- Request:</b>&nbsp;If we had a request for our mentors to help us with this goal, we'd ask</i></span><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />4. &nbsp;Goal 4: Term Sheet for $&lt;...&gt;M for our Series Seed financing by &lt;Date&gt;</b></span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Initially, we said we had not started this process yet</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the 2nd month of the program started, we stated that we were starting the process at the beginning of month 3, thereby letting everyone know when the fund raise process was going to start. &nbsp;We started documenting in the update, how many partner meetings were being set up.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the 3rd month of the program started, we disclosed how many partner meetings were being organized that week, and how many were coming, thereby showing that process was in full flow.</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">Goal Tracking:</span></b> &nbsp;Summarize how we were doing against the overall goal?</span><br /><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>- Request:</b>&nbsp;If we had a request for our mentors to help us with this goal, we'd ask</i></span><br /><br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><div><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>Request: </b>I hope this was useful. &nbsp;If you've used other formats for mentor updates and found them to be particularly effective, I'd be grateful if you could share.&nbsp;</i></span></div></div></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/02/writing-effective-mentor-updates-at.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-8383659471130620375Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:10:00 +00002012-02-03T17:38:02.783-05:00PoachingRecruitingSean LindsayStartup Poaching Etiquette – Be a Richard, Not a Dick!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CuZAp0nPh88/TytPVuMzdBI/AAAAAAAACCU/TT_guv5LfEU/s1600/recruiter-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CuZAp0nPh88/TytPVuMzdBI/AAAAAAAACCU/TT_guv5LfEU/s200/recruiter-small.jpg" width="166" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we continue to build <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/">Kinvey</a>, I regularly ask myself if I’m doing things right. As the CEO of an early-stage startup, one of the more important tasks on my plate is to put together the best team possible. &nbsp;The quality, passion and performance of every member in our team sets the standard for how well we will do as a business. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve spoken to numerous mentors of mine about how to recruit and how to attract the best talent. &nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During one such mentor conversation, one of my favorites, <a href="http://seanlindsay.com/">Sean Lindsay</a> (on a side note – I just want to hug him every time I see him; which he hates, but tolerates), gave me some great advice on how to successfully find great talent in Boston by using recruiting firms.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I decided to take Sean’s advice and put it in practice, I found out that some of the recruiters I had reached out to, were trying to source candidates from other startups. <b>Yowzza!</b> I was overcome by a huge ethical question – What is the correct startup poaching etiquette? After all, if someone came after one of my team members, I would, let’s just say, NOT BE VERY HAPPY!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While all this was happening I chanced on a Twitter exchange that <a href="http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/">Gabriel Weinberg</a>, Founder of <a href="http://duckduckgo.com/">DuckDuckGo</a>, had about this very issue. &nbsp;He was (rightfully) ticked off that another startup was trying to poach talent from his company. &nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MWr1r8epFj0/TytPsvlNo6I/AAAAAAAACCc/XsSbWOfk5AA/s1600/Parse_DDG_Poaching.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MWr1r8epFj0/TytPsvlNo6I/AAAAAAAACCc/XsSbWOfk5AA/s400/Parse_DDG_Poaching.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I then asked myself, “<i>What is MY startup poaching etiquette</i>? <i>Am I a Richard? Or, am I a Dick?</i>"</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After much thought and many conversations with my mentors and other startup CEOs, I wrote down 4 commandments that I swear to stay true to, whilst I try to attract talent to join Kinvey -&nbsp;</span></div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thou shalt NOT poach from a startup whose CEO is your friend!</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thou shalt NOT poach from a startup that has not raised a round of funding!</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thou shalt NOT poach from a startup that has less than 10 people!</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thou shalt NOT poach from a funded startup whose CEO is your friend, until you’ve talked to said CEO and received his/her OK!</span></li></ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-frtgl-uo_Xk/TytQAYC0iaI/AAAAAAAACCk/lRNH2V4sXTo/s1600/Poaching_Etiquette.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-frtgl-uo_Xk/TytQAYC0iaI/AAAAAAAACCk/lRNH2V4sXTo/s640/Poaching_Etiquette.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's your turn. &nbsp;Am I missing anything? &nbsp;Any advice?</span></div><br /></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/02/startup-poaching-etiquette-be-richard.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-3428448971661687767Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:20:00 +00002012-01-03T18:13:15.134-05:00InvestorsMentorsTop-5 Boston VCs as Mentors and Early-Stage Investors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BBAdmJ69VxU/TwNyo16SgdI/AAAAAAAACAE/jwNi2gkkkEc/s1600/Kinvey_Super_VC.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BBAdmJ69VxU/TwNyo16SgdI/AAAAAAAACAE/jwNi2gkkkEc/s200/Kinvey_Super_VC.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last 3 months, numerous&nbsp;entrepreneurs building early-stage startups or applying for the <a href="http://www.techstars.com/">TechStars</a> Boston 2012 program, and a few who are new to Boston have reached out to me to get my feedback on the Boston VC community. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of their questions have revolved around 3 areas -&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. &nbsp;Who are the "best" VC Partners?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. &nbsp;Who are the "best" Principals / Associates, who actually provide value and are not just gate keepers?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. &nbsp;Who are the "best" micro-VCs?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More often than not, when an&nbsp;entrepreneur&nbsp;asks me about the "best" this or that, I get the sense that she is asking me about who is likely to invest in her early stage startup. I try really hard to give an unbiased opinion on the VC ecosystem in Boston, derived from a combination of my personal experience and anecdotes from other early-stage&nbsp;entrepreneurs. &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Furthermore, apart from talking about how different Boston VCs invest in early-stage companies, I also try to impress on the&nbsp;entrepreneur&nbsp;that some of the VCs are truly generous with their time, advice and introductions through their network; i.e. - they make an amazing effort to be great mentors! &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To get a better sense of the Boston VC ecosystem, I created a <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/kinvey.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGtpdDFiN1NwRVV0LV9IRzNPVkxTMEE6MQ">4-question survey</a> to get a wider range of feedback on 4 questions -&nbsp;</span><br /><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which Boston VC (Partner) is the best mentor?&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which Boston VC (non-Partner) is the best mentor?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which Boston Micro-VC (Partner) is the best mentor?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which Boston VC is most likely to invest in an early-stage startup?</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I sent the survey to founders from the TechStars Boston 2009, 2010 and <a href="http://www.techstars.com/2011-funding-boston/">2011</a> classes, and asked friends in the Boston early-stage startup ecosystem (including MassChallenge) to Tweet out the URL between January 1st and January 3rd of 2012.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are the results from the first 100 responses to the survey:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1. &nbsp;Which Boston VC (Partner) is the best mentor?&nbsp;</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Winner:</span></b> &nbsp;<b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://matrixpartners.com/site/team_detail/antonio_rodriguez/">Antonio Rodriguez</a> (with 19% of the vote)</span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Note: &nbsp;There were 17 VCs who had 1 vote each, and I've filed them in the "Other" category</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8DWswht7Xt0/TwNurY9X-tI/AAAAAAAAB_U/4LtdFfnv9W0/s1600/Boston_VC_Mentor.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8DWswht7Xt0/TwNurY9X-tI/AAAAAAAAB_U/4LtdFfnv9W0/s640/Boston_VC_Mentor.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>2. &nbsp;Which Boston VC (non-Partner) is the best mentor?&nbsp;</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Winner:</span></b>&nbsp;&nbsp;<b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.sigmapartners.com/dale.php">Richard Dale</a> (with 23% of the vote)</span></b></span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Note: &nbsp;There were 6 Principals / Associates who had 1 vote each, and I've filed them in the "Other" category</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k8YUYxC-AOo/TwNvI_Z3VwI/AAAAAAAAB_g/zXYBqQS9cBo/s1600/Boston_nonPartner_mentor.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k8YUYxC-AOo/TwNvI_Z3VwI/AAAAAAAAB_g/zXYBqQS9cBo/s640/Boston_nonPartner_mentor.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>3. &nbsp;Which Boston Micro-VC is the best mentor?&nbsp;</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Winner:</span></b>&nbsp;&nbsp;<b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/krae/">Katie Rae</a> (with 21% of the vote)</span></b></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Note: &nbsp;There were 5 Micro-VCs who had 1 vote each, and I've filed them in the "Other" category. &nbsp;Also, 3 people answered "None" for this question.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GJQb0Uk8-lU/TwOAuy6F_8I/AAAAAAAACAQ/c_GtX_zID_Q/s1600/Boston_MicroVC_Mentor.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GJQb0Uk8-lU/TwOAuy6F_8I/AAAAAAAACAQ/c_GtX_zID_Q/s640/Boston_MicroVC_Mentor.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. &nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which Boston VC is most likely to invest in an early-stage startup?</span></span></b></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Winner:</span></b>&nbsp;&nbsp;<b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.atlasventure.com/">Atlas Venture</a> (with 27% of the vote)</span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Note: &nbsp;There were 3 VCs who had 1 vote each, and I've filed them in the "Other" category. &nbsp;Also, 18 people answered "None" for this question, which I find very insightful and telling.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6lnjgtAe8tI/TwNv2pXlUeI/AAAAAAAAB_4/w7bXr_AaKYQ/s1600/BostonVC_invest_early_startup.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6lnjgtAe8tI/TwNv2pXlUeI/AAAAAAAAB_4/w7bXr_AaKYQ/s640/BostonVC_invest_early_startup.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So there you have it. &nbsp;Now, go get these great VCs and Micro VCs to be your mentors, and then convince them to invest in your company. &nbsp;Good luck!</span></div></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Notes: &nbsp;</b></span></span><br /><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I focussed this survey on VCs and Micro-VCs. &nbsp;The Angel Investors in Boston are an integral part of the early-stage startup ecosystem, and require a separate post. &nbsp;That's for another day.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Atlas Venture (Jeff Fagnan, Fred Destin and Dustin Dolginow), Boston Seed (Nicole Stata), TechStars (Katie Rae and Reed Sturtevant) and Apricot Capital (Jennifer Lum) are all <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/index.php/about-page/investors">investors in Kinvey</a>. &nbsp;But I only get 1 vote. :)</span></li></ol></div></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2012/01/top-5-boston-vcs-as-mentors-and-early.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-8606069869771480573Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:22:00 +00002012-02-02T22:11:24.744-05:00Brad FeldPrioritizationTechStarsBrad Feld Mentors Me on Startup Prioritization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had spent most of the 9th day of December 2011 meeting alumni of the <a href="http://www.techstars.com/">TechStars</a> program, at the yearly alumni reunion in Las Vegas. &nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My favorite interaction of the day was with </span><a href="http://www.feld.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brad Feld</a><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even though he knew what</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kinvey</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">&nbsp;did, my chat with Brad started with his normal routine of asking me a bunch of questions about the company, so that he could understand where we were as a business. &nbsp;His questions centered around -&nbsp;</span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who our customers were</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where we were with the product and what features we offered</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How many customers we had (with revenue numbers), and</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How we were scaling</span></li></ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then he smiled. &nbsp;I already knew the question that was on the tip of tongue, "Where do you need help?"</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I replied, "Things are going really well Brad. &nbsp;In fact, things are going so well that we have tons of new customer opportunities. &nbsp;I am trying to figure out if we should go after these new customer market segments, and if so, how?"</span><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r1yS7gpTmS4/TuWHJnrhRdI/AAAAAAAAB-A/vm--v3Ik3q8/s1600/brad_feld_one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r1yS7gpTmS4/TuWHJnrhRdI/AAAAAAAAB-A/vm--v3Ik3q8/s200/brad_feld_one.jpg" width="200" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brad then asked me about the other market segments, and when he was convinced that these were potentially lucrative opportunities, he said this -&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"<i>As an early-stage startup, you should be awesome at servicing one customer segment. And you can only experiment with one other new market.</i>"</span></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He also added that I have to structure the experiment such that if it was successful, there was a customer willing to pay at the end, and if it failed, then I should not have spent too much time or money on it.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brad's rule of 1 and 1 may not apply to everyone. &nbsp;I'm sure he'll agree that each startup has to decide how many things it wants to be awesome at, and how many experiments it can run. &nbsp;But the important message is that you must figure out your sweet-spot, and once you do, be disciplined about it. &nbsp;That focus and discipline will help you win.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks Brad.</span></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2011/12/brad-feld-mentors-me-on-startup.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-6039807917554062585Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:51:00 +00002011-10-18T20:52:04.716-04:00StartupsTechStarsHey Startups: Apply to TechStars Boston and Here’s How You Get In<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="p1"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Growing up, I loved the original Karate Kid movie.&nbsp; The film is iconic for its countless Miyagi-isms, the most famous one being “Wax on, Wax off”.&nbsp; There is another, less talked ab</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">out scene in the movie, in which Miyagi advises Daniel by saying something that is very applicable to early stage start-ups - &nbsp;</span></div></div><blockquote class=""><span class="s1"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Either you karate do "yes" or karate do "no." You karate do "guess so," [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Understand?</span></i></span></blockquote><div class="p4"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="p1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://3.gvt0.com/vi/Y3lQSxNdr3c/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y3lQSxNdr3c&fs=1&source=uds" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y3lQSxNdr3c&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s1">When you decide to build your startup “yes”, the best way you can do it, in my opinion, is by getting into <a href="http://www.techstars.com/"><span class="s2">TechStars</span></a>. &nbsp;The TechStars startup accelerator program will help you refine your business, build strong relationships with world-renowned entrepreneurs and investors, push you to “Do More Faster”, give you phenomenal validation and create a fantastic platform to launch your company.</span></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sound pretty awesome? &nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, you have to get in first!&nbsp; Getting into TechStars is said to be harder than getting into Harvard.&nbsp; Here are a few things you must do to be accepted into the program:&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s1"><span class="s2"><b><a href="http://nerdcityonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/the-a-team.jpg">Build a Great Team</a></b></span><b>:</b>&nbsp; Your team is the #1 reason you are accepted into TechStars.&nbsp; Whatever your startup does, show TechStars that you, your advisors and investors (if they exist), are experts in your space.&nbsp; Prove to TechStars that each person on your team has done something that is highly relevant to your vision.</span>&nbsp;</span></div><ol class="ol1"></ol><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sydesjokes.com/pictures/p/paying_customers.jpg"><span class="s2"><b>Show you Know your Market</b></span></a><b>: </b>Prove that you’re going after a huge market and that you’ve talked to a large number of people in your market.&nbsp; Find customers or prospective customers who will use your product (Notice I said customers.&nbsp; That means, someone who is PAYING for your product.&nbsp; If they’re not paying, they’re just users).&nbsp;</span><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><b><a href="http://elamf.com/">ELAMF</a></b></span><b>:</b>&nbsp; Build and launch.&nbsp; TechStars loves working product.&nbsp; While you’re building and launching, be super methodical about it.&nbsp; Set weekly goals for yourself and makes sure you achieve these goals.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KbZ14GCs0Is/Tp4b7acMJ7I/AAAAAAAAB8E/uRyYeMQ9rTY/s1600/techstars-logo-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KbZ14GCs0Is/Tp4b7acMJ7I/AAAAAAAAB8E/uRyYeMQ9rTY/s320/techstars-logo-small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><b><a href="http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/00000/1000/700/1774/1774.strip.gif">Send Regular Updates</a></b></span><b>:</b>&nbsp; Get on social media channels and set up a blog.&nbsp; It’s free.&nbsp; You have NO excuse to not do it.&nbsp; Regularly market your company and your accomplishments.&nbsp; Send TechStars an email every week saying, here’s what I set out to do this week, and here’s what I got done.&nbsp; And this is my plan for the following week.&nbsp; Prove to TechStars that your team is an execution machine.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><b><a href="http://apply.techstars.com/">Apply Early</a></b></span><span class="s1"><b>:</b> The early app deadline for the TechStars Boston 2012 program is <a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/schedule/"><span class="s2">November 1<sup>st</sup> 2011.</span></a> &nbsp; Make sure you apply before the deadline so that you’re invited for the TechStars for a day session.&nbsp; You’ll get to meet the TechStars mentors face-to-face, create an impression about you and your company, and show them that, well, “you always show up”!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/markestes/5410722814/" style="font-weight: bold;">Be Direct</a></span><b>:</b>&nbsp; Make sure that your application is short and to the point.&nbsp; Be honest with your assessment of where you are and what you need to accomplish, but don’t be shy or modest.&nbsp; Clearly highlight your strengths to prove why you are the right team to build your company and why you’re worthy of a spot in TechStars.&nbsp; And, don’t forget to provide links to your product in your application.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s2"><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZfNOBh5H6g">Make a Video</a></b></span><b>:</b> TechStars stresses that they would like applicants to make a video to supplement their application. &nbsp;This might seem like a silly requirement.&nbsp; (Side Note:&nbsp; If you think it’s too hard to do, you’re wrong. Check out the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZfNOBh5H6g"><span class="s2">video</span></a> that we made for Kinvey on a Sunday afternoon with a digital camera, blank sheets of paper, magic markers, a printer and video editing software on your desktop). &nbsp;When you complete the video, you will realize how valuable an experience it is.&nbsp; It will help you hone your marketing message and the delivery of that message.&nbsp; It’s an amazingly useful exercise for your team.&nbsp;</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/oZfNOBh5H6g/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oZfNOBh5H6g&fs=1&source=uds" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oZfNOBh5H6g&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s3"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s3"><b><a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/%22%20%5Cl%20%22boston">Engage with TechStars Mentors</a></b></span><b>:</b> Get to know the TechStars Boston Mentors well.&nbsp; Follow them on Twitter, read their blogs, show up at events where they’re going to be and make sure they know you, your company and that you’re applying for TechStars.&nbsp; When I decided that <a href="http://www.kinvey.com/"><span class="s3">Kinvey</span></a> was going to apply for TechStars Boston 2011, mentors like <a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/krae/"><span class="s3">Katie Rae</span></a> (who is also the Managing Director of TechStars Boston), <a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/jlum/"><span class="s3">Jennifer Lum</span></a>, <a href="http://www.flybridge.com/team/Matthew-Witheiler"><span class="s3">Matthew Witheiler</span></a>, <a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/mcutler/"><span class="s3">Matt Cutler</span></a> and <a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/mentors/rsturtevant/"><span class="s3">Reed Sturtevant</span></a>, were really helpful. They went out of their way to take time from their busy schedules and gave me feedback on our roadmap and strategy. &nbsp;Do the same thing.&nbsp; It will give you a tremendous amount of assurance on how valuable TechStars mentorship would be if you got into the program.&nbsp; Your goal is to build a strong relationship with the mentors and get them to give your application a ringing endorsement.<span class="s4">&nbsp;</span></span><br /><div><ol class="ol1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></ol><div class="p8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="s1">Finally, if you’re applying for TechStars Boston and looking for some help with your application and feedback on the process, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the <a href="http://bostinnovation.com/2011/03/24/meet-the-newest-techstars-boston-class-12-companies-announced/"><span class="s2">TechStars Boston 2011</span></a> companies or any other <a href="http://www.techstars.com/companies/results/"><span class="s2">TechStars company</span></a>. &nbsp;We’d love to help you. &nbsp;The folks at TechStars and their mentors are truly fantastic and you should definitely try to get into the program. It’s one of the best things you can do for your startup!</span></span></div></div></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2011/10/hey-startups-apply-to-techstars-boston.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325769765784699160.post-220639807913955204Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:38:00 +00002012-01-01T15:27:20.145-05:00CompetitionStartupsHey Startups: Don’t be Shy About Your Competition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">First some background – I started </span><a href="http://www.kinvey.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Kinvey</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">, a Cloud Backend as a Service for mobile and tablet apps, in September 2010. Since then, we successfully went through the </span><a href="http://www.techstars.org/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">TechStars</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> program in Boston, </span><a href="http://www.kinvey.com/index.php/sign-up-for-beta" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">launched our Beta</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> and </span><a href="http://bostinnovation.com/2011/09/21/2011/08/04/kinvey-turns-1m-investment-at-techstars-demo-day-into-a-2m-seed-round/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">raised $2M in a Seed Round of Financing</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.&nbsp; We now have over 1000 developers signed up for our Beta and we’re growing our team to improve our product and deliver the next set of features that our customers have asked for.</span><br /><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/Tv7-4Mm1Fco/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tv7-4Mm1Fco&fs=1&source=uds" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tv7-4Mm1Fco&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last year, I’ve noticed that competitors have emerged and a space has clearly formed to deliver cloud-based Backend as a Service for mobile and tablet apps, which brings me to the reason I’m writing this post.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On September 16th 2011, I received the following email from a Boston-based VC, who I know well -</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #383838; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>“Enjoyed your presentation at FutureM the other day – I have a question for you…have you seen the company </i><b><i>&lt;Kinvey Competitor&gt;</i></b><i> ?</i></span></div><div style="color: #383838; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #383838; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They seem to be in your space, and I believe, have been talking to our team on the west coast…not sure if you’re in touch with exactly what they’re doing, but is there an easy way to compare/contrast what you’re doing with what they’re doing?&nbsp; Or are the features similar and is it a race to acquire developer momentum?</span></i></div><div style="color: #383838; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #383838; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hope you’ve been doing well… “</span></i><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><a name='more'></a></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was surprised when I read the email because this VC had looked at Kinvey when we raised our previous funding round.&nbsp; He got to know our team, our strategy and roadmap, and passed on the investment because “the stage/risk profile wasn’t a perfect fit for them.” Now, just 2 months from the time he talked to us, he was asking me to help him with his diligence on one our competitors, who I believe has the same stage/risk profile.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My first instinct was to shy away from talking about our competition.&nbsp; Should I even acknowledge that they exist?&nbsp; Or should I, instead, say something that would discourage him from funding them? I slept on it, and woke with a question -</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As startups, why don’t we talk about our competition in public?</span></i></b></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fM6X5VRgoqo/TuWQotEzRSI/AAAAAAAAB-I/YeJaZpTM9TU/s1600/i_win.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fM6X5VRgoqo/TuWQotEzRSI/AAAAAAAAB-I/YeJaZpTM9TU/s200/i_win.png" width="180" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After all, we’re all solving the SAME problems for the SAME customer and we have the SAME goal – to show our customers that we have a better solution than the status quo that they are used to.&nbsp; So instead of shying away from the competition, let’s all team up from a marketing standpoint to show our customers that a strong set of startups are innovating to build the “what’s next” in a new space.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To show you that I’m willing to practice what I’m preaching from my soapbox, I’d like to share with you some of the startups that are in the same space as Kinvey.&nbsp; We’re all part of a new space called Backend as a Service. In alphabetical order, we are –</span></div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="color: #3400ee; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.cloudmine.me/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">CloudMine</span></a></li><li style="color: #3400ee; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.kinvey.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kinvey</span></a></li><li style="color: #3400ee; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.parse.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Parse</span></a></li><li style="color: #3400ee; font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.stackmob.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">StackMob</span></a></li></ul><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our customers are mobile and tablet developers, and here’s what we want them to know.&nbsp; Don’t directly use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings like Amazon EC2, RackSpace Cloud and Windows Azure – we’ll abstract them for you.&nbsp; Don’t get stuck with building a platform stack with Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings from Heroku, CloudFoundry and OpenShift – we’ll give you out-of-the-box features that offer a much easier and richer user experience.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead, here’s what you’ll get with our Backend as a Service (BaaS) – You won’t need to build and operate backends on your own anymore.&nbsp; We’ll do it for you, and we’ll make it ridiculously easy and insanely cost-effective – better than any other do-it-yourself option.</span></div></div>http://www.mentorbacked.com/2011/10/hey-startups-dont-be-shy-about-your.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sravish Sridhar)0